There are two things we all need to keep in mind when it comes to keeping our personal memory: time and money.
It’s important to keep the time commitment in mind, but it’s also important to keep the budget part in mind so you don’t get derailed and demotivated.
Here are my 5 tips for maintaining a realistic memory on a tight budget.
1. Consider all your options before you start
We lose a lot of money (and time) when we don’t think things through. Some things you might want to consider are…
– what is your style?
– what is your budget? (your actual budget, not your idealistic budget) We all know that this kind of thing is a luxury, so give yourself permission to acknowledge it.
– What do you NOT want to do?
I love the look of photo books so I bought some coupons from 3 different companies about 3 years ago. Well, now I can tell you that I will never make a photobook again. I’ll happily pay for someone else with a clean visual style to do it for me, but for me to do it myself, no thanks. You see, the book cost around R200 on sale, but I spent a torturous 3 hours putting each one together. It’s not worth it to me. I’d rather pay more and have someone else do it.
The next set was easier, but still the time investment was killer, and the third time (I’m not a very fast learner, am I?), when the system kept bombarding me, I asked for a refund and finally remembered why don’t do photobooks.
2. What is your minimum level of satisfaction with memory?
There are many free apps available and some very profitable ones as well.
· Are you taking a picture with your phone?
Are you instagramming it?
· Is it to put a folder on Facebook?
I did a 365 Project last year. Most of my photos have also been uploaded to Instagram, but many have not. I didn’t want Instagram hard days at work, but they’re part of my story, so those photos are saved in my Project 365 app, just for me.
3. Do you want to print something?
After the photobook disasters, I decided I’m fine with photobooks. I love my photo albums. I have a large one for each of my two children ages 1-5. I print only 4 photos a month for each child. I love having that creative edge because it’s supposed to be a snapshot of what that kid was like at that point in his life.
4. Choose your storage method carefully
I have the same type of photo albums (200 pages), so they stack nicely on a shelf. These albums follow my style of photography because I mostly take horizontal layout photos.
Some people make a monthly or weekly Project Life album. I do a monthly Project Life because I don’t like the idea of weekly pressure.
5. When choosing how you want to store your photos, consider current and future costs.
When I ordered mini albums, I ordered 3 to be ordered for 3 years. That might not work for you if you like everything new. It doesn’t bother me that I don’t have everything current so I’m fine.
I love the idea of Project Life but not the shipping costs to South Africa. And so, my best advice for keeping your budget in mind…
If you do Project Life, buy only what you need from the digital kits.
I paid around R1100 for my first kit, just the kit, not the albums, with postage. That’s crazy and my head hurts every time I think about it too much.
Next time I ordered life files from the site’s digital project. I mixed it up so I got the Honey and Sunshine kits because they made me happy, I printed the PDFs and now I’m good to go. The only hassle was cutting them because I don’t have a paper cutter. I only paid around R100 for the files and cardstock printing. That was a huge saving of R1000.
In my opinion, even if you do a weekly Project Life layout, you’ll never finish the entire box in a year. Yes, you could use the cards to make lists (I do this too), but why spend money to get started?